‘Just do the next right thing’ – A Disney spin on a classic goal setting technique
Whether it’s school, sport, work, or just general family and scheduling chaos; life can sometimes seem overwhelming and intimidating. Everywhere we look, there is messaging that we should all be perfect at everything we take on. Be the perfect athlete who accomplishes all their training down to the exact minute, has that perfect protein smoothie waiting and ready to go as you head off to that part time job with a smile on your face and still have enough energy to make yourself a nutritious dinner and tackle some homework at the end of the day! There seems to be this illusion that as we ‘grow up’ and gain more life experience, being successful becomes easier. But what happens once you start pursuing a career or choose to start a family? It would appear that the same social perfectionistic pressures apply and some would argue: get worse. With the upsurgence of social media, it may seem like we are even expected to vacation perfectly! The external pressures of perfection can really add up and if we are not careful, and they can compound into an internalized need to give 110%, a hundred percent of the time. And what happens to things when they are placed under pressure for too long?...They explode, or arguably worse: implode.
5x4mins Bog intervals can seem overwhelming, but taking them 10 strides at time will help to lower the intimidation factor
As a mental performance consultant, I am not going to sit here and tell you that to prevent feeling this pressure is all about ‘self-care’ and ‘me-time’ because not only will I get a few eye rolls, but that is simply unrealistic. Self care is by no means a bad thing, my point is that if it is offered as the sole solution to the stress in our life, that in itself can become overwhelming and something else we feel we need to be perfect at. As I have written about before, stress is real, it is a part of all our lives and it’s not going away. But...how we view stress and better yet, how we tackle it, is what will make all the difference.
We’ve all heard of the strategy of breaking a goal or a challenge up into smaller, accomplishable tasks. This game plan was recently refreshed in my mind, believe it or not, by a Disney movie. The other night, I was watching Frozen 2 and a scene came up where Princess Anna (*spoiler alert) thinks that her sister is dead and that she has to now save the world all on her own. If that’s not extreme pressure, I don’t know what is! Anyways, instead of attempting to tackle the whole thing all at once, she tells herself that all she needs is to “do the next right thing”. Through an inspirational power ballad, she finds that by breaking a task up into smaller, more accomplishable items, before she knows it, she is gaining confidence and is ready to save Arendelle! What Anna probably doesn’t know is that she is using a very basic sport psychology motivational goal setting strategy. Climbing a mountain may seem intimidating or even impossible, but you can take 10 steps. And then 10 more.
Looking at mountainous goals as a whole can seem impossible and may actually freeze us into indecision
Take 10 steps.
Now take 10 more.
Ready to take on the next challenge whether it be saving a kingdom or starting an expedition
Often times when people feel stress or the pressure to be perfect, we can freeze. We avoid and procrastinate instead of starting to work on the thing that is stressing us out in the first place. This is because if we look at these large goals as a whole, they can seem impossible and so our stress response deems them as threatening to our self-image. If we take a page out of Princess Anna’s book and just focus on doing the next right thing, we will a)stop procrastinating, b) gain confidence by accomplishing tasks and c) notice that we are halfway up the mountain and didn’t even realize it.
*Please note that this is just one of many strategies that can be used in stress management and is not the be all/end all solution.